Work Permit Application Process in Turkey

In 2017, Turkey has more than 87,000 foreign employees who go through a work permit application process with the Turkish administration. This number is increasing every year with a growth of more than 14% for the last 4 years. One of the reasons for the significant increase in recent years is notably the massive influx of Syrian citizens (this is about 20,970 applications for work permits in 2017). Around 5,000 to 6,000 work permit applications are from Europe, between 500 and 600 a year come from France.

Although the Turkish administration is more efficient than that of a large number of European countries, it still has some shortcomings and is known to be quite slow with respect to the time required to issue permits, which can range up to 4 to 6 months for some cases. Procedures are also slower because massive demands from Syrians have significantly slowed internal systems.

Our advice to avoid this prohibition of an organization like ERAI Turkey which is in direct contact with the administration and which issues the license in 2 months for the longest and 3 weeks for the fastest.

Some important information to know about obtaining a work permit in Turkey:

A single person cannot apply for a work permit. The request must be made by a local company.

The Turkish company has the right to hire 1 foreign employee for every 5 Turkish employees. For example, if the company has 25 Turkish employees, they can, therefore, employ 5 foreign employees.

The capital of the company in question must be equal to or greater than 100,000 TL or the company’s turnover must be equal to or greater than 800,000 TL or its exports must be equal to or greater than 250,000 $.

If the employee is already in Turkey, he/she must have a 6-month residence permit and must be valid when the work permit application is made to the Ministry.

If the foreign employee is in another country, his application should be addressed to the Turkish Consulate of the country in which he is located.

All documents must be submitted to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security within 6 days after the employer’s work permit application.